It’s Go Time

I have to admit that I am facing a bit of a writer’s block this week. Normally a topic just pops into my head, usually spurred by a conversation, and by the time I sit down to write the cake is already set and the frosting flows out. If that doesn’t

Image by thinkpanama via Flickr

happen, then I just think back to when I was carrying a bag and some story will come to mind and then the only challenge is editing out all the R rated material (that’s right, this blog is the edited version).  Sometimes I even take a peek at some of the blogs I “follow” (meaning I read the headline in the reminder email and then make up the content- just like I ingest all media) to see if that will shake anything loose. This week, there isn’t anything new- just a bunch of advice about not giving into discount pressure and increasing a sense of urgency in the holiday season.  Blah blah blah.

The cold hard reality is that December blows for salespeople trying to eke out new business. Every decision maker is in the same boat you are:

1. knee deep in planning for next year (for salespeople that means interviewing)
2. trying to wrap up those end-of-year projects (deals)
3. checked out altogether (preferable)

Unfortunately, the only real life experience-backed advice I can offer for December selling is what I used to do in the rare occasions that I wasn’t fully engaged in number 3: Identify what can close by the 31st and pull out all the stops to make them happen.

But wait, an idea is gelling- let me tell you a bunch of things that you shouldn’t be doing while you are making it happen in December:

1. Going to internal sales meetings. By this time your short timer manager or Sales VP has probably abandoned his resolve from earlier in the year to “really make the weekly sales meeting count.” Do he and you a favor by not showing up- tell him you are “buckling down on EOY revenue opps.” Make sure you have a reason why he can’t come.
2. Going to internal anything meetings. Just because there are a bunch of OE’s (overhead employees) that are feeling the year end scrutiny to justify their jobs doesn’t mean you need to go to the new Conference Room Naming Meeting.
3. Responding to Email. That’s right, I said it.  Letting Outlook run your day is a luxury reserved for CEOs, Founders, and Biz Dev people. Spend your valuable daylight hours completing the tasks that you defined when you started working (or better yet, just before you quit the day before) prioritized exactly in the order of how much they can bring in those few deals. Obviously, this doesn’t pertain to emails sent from your EOY deal customers, Dipsh^t. 
4. Listening to anybody but your customer. Who cares what some executive in your company, or sales consultant, or even worse, blogger pundit says. Nobody should know your deal better than you.  Break all the process rules. The only thing that matters is what your customer is telling you (or showing you) that will make the deal close. If there is a feature that needs to be addressed, find a product guy that can draw a picture. If there is a legal issue, give on it. If a discount will get the deal in, pull your pants down!  Like Tim Gunn says in Project Runway, “Make it work!”

Sorry folks, the December sales picture can be a dreary one. Hopefully something funny will happen to me this week so I can take your mind off it all in the next post.